An amazing response. She was doing approximately 8.5 knots at the time of blacking out.
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Yes Aus , that was an amazing response from the ships crew, and I also agree that a tug would have had little effect at that speed that close to the bridge.
As I say thoughts and prayers to all involved.
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244,
There was a great deal of debris across the vessel’s forward section. Hopefully the crew standing by on the forecastle managed to vacate in time. Come daylight in Baltimore and the overall picture will be clearer. Many innocent parties affected by this.
Agreed. We often put these accidents in our own perspective from a ships operation point of view, but there were people just driving across that bridge that have likely lost their lives. Very sad situation.
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For this Baltimore native and former Baltimore harbor tug captain and apprentice pilot, that video of the allision is hard to watch.
FYI…there are/were 4 large concrete dolphins/caissons (2 east and 2 west) on the edge of the channel to protect the main support abutments.
Not sure it would have made much of difference though.
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ClassNK info sheet for Dali (IMO 9697428):
https://www.classnk.or.jp/register/regships/one_dsp.aspx?imo=9697428
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capnfab,
That may explain the pall of dust that rose just prior to the bridge going down. A very hard video to watch.
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Could very well have struck the dolphin/caisson before taking out the abutment.
Just west of the bridge are towers supporting electric transmission lines too.
But, seeing a couple of still photos, it looks like the tower on the south side survived intact.
If interested, WJZ TV and WBAL TV are local stations covering this horror show.
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Very hard to watch and particularly for you Captfab who must know that area very very well.
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Thanks.
It’s tough to take.
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Conventional single engine direct drive propulsion with 5 AC generator, 20,850 kVA.
PS> Could the reason for the blackout be as simple as somebody closing the wrong switch, hitting the wrong button, or touching the wrong place on a screen?
It has happened before, but usually not with as tragic result.
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CNN helo video shows port anchor out.
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We have those Pin Ball Barriers around the Skyway here in Tampa Bay. They say it’s impossible for a ship to go through them.
Was near there at Skyway incident… Much different conditions. Pilot lost visibility there, not power. These two pilots were fucked when they lost the plant. Engineering department will be under much scrutiny.for many years. Also, a question regarding pilots, did they lose the plant before or atter the hard shear? My heart goes out to all folks affected by this and the Skyway incident. Especially the mariners.
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This was not fun to wake up to. I have been over and under that bridge more times than I can count. 
This could have been 1,000 times worse if it happened at rush hour.
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The video shows me that they never lost propulsion but the online generator shutdown or they tripped a main breaker thus lost steering until the egen or 2nd genset was connected to the board. Rudder may have been right 10deg or so right when everything went dark and the swing couldn’t be checked after steering was regained. Not nearly enough HP in these huge ships to slow them down quickly even though they tried going emergency astern before impact
These mega container carriers are far too large to be safely navigated in confined waters vis what we saw happen on the Suez Canal a couple years ago.
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There are so many ways to lose the plant on a box ship and so little time to fix them properly that I’m amazed we don’t see this more often.
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If full astern it would have pulled the stern to port while the ship continues forward into the bridges structure. Would have been a bold move to go ahead full but it’s probably the quickest way to regain control & get her pointed in the right direction
Easy to say when not there though.
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Do the tugs not run with the ship until she is clear of the bridge? After Ever Forward, you’d think there’d be all sorts of rules and regs for tugs to be escorting mega box ships all through the harbor.
There will be now for sure, what a disaster
Hope whowever dropped the anchor made it as well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4-qotpr1Y5/?igsh=MW81ZjM2ZTRnMzRubw==
